"Companies in the fields of pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, agricultural products and cosmetics now need to negotiate a legislative labyrinth when bringing their products to market. In many cases more than one act is involved in the relevant regulatory framework - further complicating the situation. Regulations have reached such a point of complication that many businesses require the constant input of professionals in the legal sphere when considering labelling for products they're bringing to market," says Herman Blignaut, Partner at Spoor & Fisher.
The new regulations relating to the labelling and advertising of foodstuffs aim to create a specific standard for informing consumers about the ingredients in foodstuffs. All labels and advertising will have to be presented in the same format, which will hopefully stem the amount of misleading claims often made by manufacturers. For example, the regulations will curb statements relating to sugar where manufacturers would label a product as 'no sugar added' but still contains sugars - just not in the form of added table sugar. This statement alone has caused considerable confusion amongst consumers who often misinterpret this statement as meaning the product is sugar free.
This is also intended to make it easier for consumers to compare different products and the new labelling will make it easier for consumers to identify nutritional information of products as well as allergens that the products may contain.
Broadly, the regulations state that food labels and advertisements may not contain words, pictures, marks or descriptions which create the impression that the food is endorsed by a health practitioner; an endorsement or testimonial of an individual in any form if that endorsement or testimonial implies a nutrition claim; the words "Health" or "Healthy" or any other words or symbols implying that the foodstuff in and of itself has health giving properties; the words "wholesome" or "nutritious" or any other word with similar meaning; a claim that a foodstuff provides complete or balanced nutrition; the word "cure" or any other medicinal claim, subject to the amended provisions of the Medicines and Related Substances Act.
"In the past, two similar products may have differentiated themselves by focusing on different strengths inherent in both products. This can no longer be done. A product may not tout the fact that, for instance, additional nutritional elements have been added to it. Consumers will actively have to compare products to see which is higher in content of the nutritional ingredients they want," says Blignaut.
This also means that manufacturers of a product such as milk will no longer be able to claim that it may be good to strengthen bones, but may simply state that it naturally contains calcium. Manufacturers will also not be able to disclose whether a product contains micro-organisms or compounds such as probiotics.
Additionally, from the manufacturers point of view, it will not be compulsory for food manufacturers to publish a typical nutritional information table and for those that do, they must be able to substantiate any labelling information within 48 hours of being requested to do so, which many believe may see manufacturers leaving off important information regarding their products ingredients.
Amongst the problems that manufacturers face, a few of the most perplexing include the nutritional information format, specifically the inclusion of dietary fibre method of analysis and the scientific determination of serving size, which cannot simply be the capacity of the packaging.
"Manufacturers are also finding ingredient statements and the requirements they need to meet confusing as well as what claims can be made about foodstuffs and what criteria need to be taken into account when it comes to misleading descriptions with words such as pure, natural, hand-made, fresh, original, finest and so forth," concludes Blignaut.
